Posted on 08/23/2014 11:53:00 AM PDT by re_tail20
Hostess Brands LLC announced on Aug. 20 that the Illinois bakery where Twinkies were first invented will close this fall. More than 400 workers will be affected by the shuttering of the company’s Schiller Park location in October. Sadly, this isn’t surprising.
In 2012, Hostess closed three bakeries nationwide after a massive union strike, high labor costs and increased competition turned up the heat on the baked-goods company. It’s hard to believe that some variation of these factors didn’t cause Hostess to sever its ties with Illinois. About 280 of the company’s workers in Schiller Park voted to unionize in May.
Union leaders at the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union, who were caught off guard by the closure, would have been wise to remember their follies in 2012. They must have thought Hostess was bluffing when they balked at contract negotiations. But Hostess wasn’t bluffing, and now hundreds of workers have lost their jobs.
It didn’t help that the state has been handing out millions in tax breaks and free cash to other confectionaries, while saddling companies such as Jelly Belly and Hostess with the fourth-highest workers’ compensation rates in the nation and the fourth-highest corporate tax rate in the industrialized world. When Illinois government picked winners, these two companies packed up and shipped out.
There’s a reason why the Twinkie bakery in Indiana is still open for business. As it turns out, the Chicago Tribune reported that some of the Schiller Park workers may be able to get jobs at the Hoosier State facility.
Snack and candy businesses that make money on small margins often can’t afford to play politics. Perhaps if they had been making colorful candies instead of cream-filled cakes, Hostess could have gotten a piece of the action.
That is great news I will look for them next time I’m up that way.
There was obviously a big disruption with the parting out of the brands. Some have become regional I guess and some item lines might not have been continued if they don’t think they were profitable.
I have other brands in this region but they don’t taste the same, although nice to have competition and choices.
They might expand (we hope). For years you only saw freihoffers bread in upstate ny, maybe new England too, but now they are all over. Still prefer pepperidge farm but freighters is ok.
According to http://www.statesymbolsusa.org/Illinois/IllinoisNameOrigin.html Illinois is the French version of an Algonquin Indian word for “warriors” or “tribe of superior men.”
Looks like a name change is in order on two counts:
Racism and gender inequality.
You left out "militaristic". Eeeevil militaristic!
/s
Tastycakes rule!
And then they’d be taxed to death by the sugar nannies. No “spoon full of sugar” can make the liberal medicine go down!!
Illinois is a state named after Indians—the Illini, to be exact.
When Bob Dole ran for Congress the first time, he served people small cups of Dole pineapple juice to build name recognition.
When Hillary runs in 2016, her campaign should serve Ding Dongs, to remind people of that song in "The Wizard of Oz"...
But then again, she doesn't really need to build name recognition.
Many years ago I went on a camping trip in Sequoia National Park with several other people. One night the bears raided our food supply and made off with a bunch of Ding Dongs. Not speaking Bear, we weren't able to warn them that they weren't good for their health.
NO COMPULSORY UNION DUES.
OUTLAW ALL FEDERAL EMPLOYEE UNIONS
NO EARLY VOTING
NO FELONS VOTING
VOTER FRAUD MINIMUM 5 YEAR SENTENCE.
THROW OUT ALL REGISTRATIONS, NEW NATIONAL VOTER ID CARD REQUIRED TO VOTE.
INVESTIGATE , INDICT, AND IMPRISON ALL SOCIALIST CROOKS IN THE CONGRESSIONAL PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS.
DEFUND ALL LEFT WING PNP ORGANIZATIONS.
I was wondering about that.
The coffee cakes were good, but there some somethink about their cupcakes. Size, type of dryness, it’s been while, and too long a while, if they aren’t coming back.
I wonder if they have problems with workers showing up at work dead after being gunned down.
Come to New York, where you won't have to pay taxes for a decade. Honest!
With schools banning snack cakes from their vending machines, how can these companies convert a new generation to sugar foods.
Ping to Post #58. My thoughts, too!
Twinkie, Twinkie, little bar
We'll never know now where you are
First you were in Illinois
Now you're like a cast-off toy
You were atop the world so high
A creamy pudding in the sky
Twinkie, Twinkie, your flow, your ebb.....
Damn, now we're stuck with Little Deb
Leni
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